It was founded in 1991, by around 300 entrepreneurs,[7] as a joint venture between Italian corporations who provided the initial funding and continued to provide support and guidance under the seal of the Industrial Association of the Province of Varese (UNIVA). The university, housed in a restored nineteenth-century cotton mill,[7] is organized into three Faculties (Business & Economics, Business Law and Management Engineering). The university is named after Carlo Cattaneo, a nineteenth-century local thinker and economist.
In 1994, a diploma in Engineering Management was offered.
In 1998, the bachelor's program in Business Law was introduced.
Campus
Cantoni cotton mill
LIUC is located within the historic structure of an industrial complex, the Cantoni cotton mill, born around 1830, and that later became full of industry. The restoration and rehabilitation of the former spinning workshop were commissioned by the Union of Industrialists of the Province of Varese.
Campus today
To date, the factory buildings have been the home to the University Campus. The covered area of the university is 68,000 square metres; classrooms with a total of 3,000 seats, a lecture hall of more than 300 seats, five workshops, a library of 1,600 square metres with 100,000 volumes and a rich collection of periodicals, an auditorium with 100 seats, a cafeteria dedicated to student activities, experiential workshops and various events.
Dormitories
The campus of LIUC also has a university residence, named after the Castellana industrialist Luigi Pomini, with 440 beds and a total area of 10,800 square metres that accommodates both Italian and foreign students.
LIUC Park
The university campus complex also has a green space, LIUC park, of 26,000 square metres. The location is utilized for conducting the annual degree ceremony.[8]
Programs
Faculty of Business & Economics
Finance and Administration
Communication, Marketing and New Media
Sports Management
Management and entrepreneurship
Business Economics (taught in English)
Global Markets (taught in English)
Family Business Management (taught in English)
Administration and Audit
Bank, Markets and Finance
Economy and Business Management
Entrepreneurship & Innovation (taught in English)
International Business Management (taught in English)
Management of Human Resources - HR & Consulting
Marketing
Faculty of Engineering
Systems and Services for Digital Business
Industrial Operations Excellence (taught in Italian or English)
Data Science for Operational Excellence
Digital Consulting
Health Care System Management
Manufacturing Strategy (taught in English)
Rankings and research
It is one of the three Italian universities (together with SDA Bocconi and Università Cattolica) which are part of the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness's network teaching Michael Porter's Microeconomics of Competitiveness graduate class.[9] In 2015 the Italian economic newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore placed LIUC university as the third best private economic school in Italy by didactics, and fifth taking into account also research.[10]
However, the university is not ranked among "QS Top Universities".[11]
Library
Biblioteca Mario Rostoni was established in 1991[12] and is the academic library affiliated with University Carlo Cattaneo. It has as many as 110,000 volumes,[13] which comprise ebooks, paper books, magazines, financial statements, and databases of economy, management, law and engineering.[12]
Student and alumni associations
Students and researchers who attended at least one yyear at the University Carlo Cattaneo participate in the LIUC Alumni Association.[14]
Leo Club is an extension of Lions International composed of young people. The purpose is to organize services to rise money for pro-bono causes.